ooh, jason lam so hungry in nyc
Ben’s Hook, Line & Dinner show on The Cooking Channel will have him coming back to Brooklyn for some East River fishing and hit some cool spots, like Acme Smoked Fish Corporation –this Thursday night, March 29th. Supposedly, I make an appearance.
A few weeks back, Dr. Klaw rode around in an Excalibur limousine passing out lobster rolls from the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
…and we drank bubbly.
Oh man. Sam was back in town and we grabbed dinner at Sel de Mer. They had steamed lobster on the menu again ($17) with fries. Got that and the Beer Battered Fish & Chips ($15). We split that shit. So dang good. My hands were a mess. I dipped my fries into the lobster head. Green gunk is the new ketchup.
I live so close to this place. I don’t know why I don’t eat here more often.
Sel de Mer – 374 Graham Ave (btwn Conselyea & Skillman) Brooklyn, NY 11211
My family came in to town to the big city …from Orlando, Birmingham and Seattle. It was my choice to pick a place for dinner. I figured a Big Wong King would be a great choice. I like the roast meats and congee there.
It was raining all day, so that probably explained that the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. And I felt like everything was a representation of myself as you’ll learn from my upcoming posts. …what does it mean if it’s mostly white people eating? Not enough Chinese people in the place. Why is the place empty? I felt like I picked poorly. Yeah, a lot of regular non-Chinese people know about it this place on Yelp. But it is one of the better places in my opinion.
We got the Lobster special –two lobsters in Cantonese sauce for $20, 2 big bowls of Congee, Fried Cruller Bread, Wonton Noodle Soup, Kai-Lan (Chinese Broccoli) and Roast Pork. I thought it all pretty good food.
But still again, I felt like I was being judged for any criticism about the restaurant. The floor too greasy. The service too rude (…that’s just the way Chinatown people are). And that we were cheated on our bill. All night, my family thought they got ripped off after adding it up in the head. I met up with them the next day and they told me that and that place is very bad. I stopped them. How can a $57 bill be a rip-off for 5 people in NYC …especially when we got lobsters. (Granted, $10 does sound a lot for Chinese Broccoli. But I know that most of those restaurants do charge that much for vegetables.) I help them add it up again, including the beers I drank when I was waiting for them for 40 minutes to take a 8 min cab ride over and other stuff they forgot we ordered. It worked out. Big Wong didn’t rip us off. If anything, they forgot to add a couple of small things.
Shit. Next meal is based on my suggestion again.
Big Wong King - 67 Mott St (btw Bayard & Canal St) New York, NY 10013
Rusty and I walked around Millennium and Grant Park on our last day in Chicago. Cool bean. Then met up with Ronnie Z for lunch at Coco’s Famous Deep Fried Lobster. I was excited to check it out, because it said it was famous.
I asked for water, but no water. Not even bottled water. I looked at the choices. Only sodas and Arizona Ice Teas. I was so confused. How does a restaurant not have any water …even if I wanted to pay for it? I almost wanted to say something but then saw the sign, “There will be $5 Charge for Whining” on the wall. I suppose it’s supposed to be humorous, but there’s probably a reason why it’s up there.
I ordered the Deep Fried Lobster ($11.25 for the small). Came with fries and a small cup of cole slaw, ketchup and hot sauce. It was pretty good, but I don’t know if it’s better than non-deep fried lobster. The deep frying is pretty much killing it, right? It’s not much different than fried fish chunks, except for the slight shellfish flavor.
Ronnie Z got a small white rice for $2.25. I don’t know who only orders just a small white rice, but this is how it looks at Coco’s (see below). He had one bite and then we left.
All I can think about is “no water.” And according to the signs out front, “No Public Restrooms” and “No Loitering.” …Alright, I’ll stop whining.
Coco’s Famous Deep Fried Lobster - 426 S Clark St (btwn Van Buren & Congress Pky) Chicago, IL 60605
I was to meet Ben Sargent, host of Cooking Channel’s Hook, Line & Dinner at Red Lobster in Times Square. Instead his longtime friend & business partner (or possibly Ben’s alter-ego), Dr. Klaw showed up with a live two-foot pet lobster with spike bracelets. Dr. Klaw sure had beef with Ben …and lobster nachos with me.
There’s a 90min director’s cut of this video that will premiere at Cannes. I can’t believe we racked up a $200 bill at Red Lobster.
Yes. In the video, Dr. Klaw really does pull out a huge ass live lobster onto the table while we were eating. Red Lobster thought he took it out of their tank.
Ben’s new show premieres this Tuesday June 7th on the Cooking Channel.
I wasn’t planning on doing anything for my birthday, but woke up and decided I wanted to try a dungeness crab. So my friends took me to Chinatown. Hsin Wong was packed and we went to Yee Li a few doors down. I ordered too much food. The dishes here are bigger than they appear in the photos if you’re referencing the scale to the spoon. Those spoons are giant serving spoons.
My favorite was the Fish Fillet with Minced Pork. The waiter insisted we get that instead of the whole fish we wanted, which was $20/lb. So figure that would be around $55. Good call.
The dungeness crab was good. Pretty much like a big crab.
Also ordered my favorites –Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce and Roast Pig. Crispy and fatty skin!
Dan took this amazing shot on his phone. I didn’t know I was a cartoon.
Afterwards, we hit up Winnie’s Bar for some karaoke. It was packed full of white kids like us. I let some wasted chick take pictures with my nice camera, but I don’t think she could figure it out. I don’t see any on my memory card. I asked her how the popcorn was that she was eating from our table. She gave me the stink eye and walked away.
I didn’t know they had a small menu at Winnie’s. Marcellus got some spring rolls. We left a ton of Yee Li leftovers behind the bar. We forgot. I hope they find it.
Yee Li – 1 Elizabeth St (@ Bayard St) New York, NY 10013
The dungeness crabs and lobsters live from the outside of the restaurant. Before I shot this, one of the crabs swam under the jet bubbles and started dancing. I like how they have the two super tiny pinchers from their mouths. Little do they know I’m about to eat them.
I just saw this in my inbox from the Thrillist. I thought someone was jacking Ben’s underground lobster roll idea, but on closer inspection that is Ben. I thought it was Color Me Badd –>More at the Thrillist.
Tuesday is $13 lobster night at Sam’s favorite brunch spot, Wombat. We tried it last week. The lobster is a little on the small side (and no side included), but still a pretty good deal. The South Pacific style lobster was the best with the sweet garlic & chili sauce. We tried the Sticky Pig Balls (seasoned ground pork, sushi rice and Grana Padano rolled in panko bread crumbs). Not as adventurous as it sounds.
They have $1 oysters Monday nights.
Wombat Restaurant & Bar – 613 Grand St (btwn Leonard & Lorimer St) Brooklyn NY11211
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